Ukrainian film production has reached a milestone: for the first time ever, the legendary American studio 20th Century Fox is distributing a Ukrainian movie.
“The Battle for Sevastopol,” released in Ukrainian theaters as “Nezlamna” (“Unbroken”) on April 2, is a historical biopic about Liudmyla Pavlychenko, a Ukrainian sniper who was the Soviet Union’s most effective deadeye during World War II.
Pavlychenko was a 25-year-old student living in Kyiv when she volunteered to go to the war in 1941. In just one year that she spent on the battlefield, Pavlychenko killed 309 Nazis.
She was also a part of the Soviet delegation to the U.S. that persuaded politicians to open the second front and send American military to fight Nazis in Europe. Eleanor Roosevelt invited Pavlychenko to live in the White House during her stay – an exceptional honor for somebody from the U.S.S.R.
It is through the conversations between the two legendary women that the film touches one of its main points – the tragic fate of a woman in war times. Disparate as they were, the president’s wife and the Soviet sniper both had to fight the enemy alongside the men – though in different ways.
By Hollywood standards, the movie’s production was very cheap, costing its producers only $5 million. But it is the biggest budget that a Ukrainian movie has ever had.
The film was co-produced by Ukraine and Russia because the project started before Russia launched its war against Ukraine last year with the forced annexation of Crimea. The Ukrainian government and TV provided 80 percent of the budget, with Russia picking up the rest.
20th Century Fox picked the film up for distribution in Asia and is considering bringing it to North and South America, Germany and France.
The film was originally named “The Battle for Sevastopol,” in reference to the events of 1942. It was changed to “Unbroken” for domestic run to avoid associations with Russia’s military invasion of Crimea in 2014. Foreign distributors, including those in Russia, will screen the movie under its original name.
Russia’s involvement in production made some critics anticipate that the film will be full of nostalgia for the Soviet Union, part of Russia’s propaganda machine.
This didn’t happen in “Nezlamna.” It shows the 1942 retreat of Soviet troops in the face of Nazi advances. One of its minor characters is a Ukrainian victim of Josef Stalin’s repressions.
“The viewer overrates propaganda and expects to see the usual clichés – and there weren’t any,” said Makym Dankevych, the script author. “Instead, we tried to show that war isn’t the right place for women to be on a deeper level.”
One could argue the part about not having clichés. However, the plot is saturated with dramatic scenes that sometimes are personal and poignant. For example, the first thing a viewer finds out about Pavlychenko is her difficult relationship with her father, who wanted a son.
“Nezlamna” is strong visually, in the dynamic Hollywood-like tradition with lots of special effects.
The performance of Yuliya Peresild, who plays Pavlychenko, is persuasive, but her startlingly poor acting in a scene where she shakes from terror, recalling how her battalion got bombed, wasn’t her best moment.
A key part of the movie is Pavlychenko’s speech during a press conference in the United States. The message she gave to U.S. journalists and governors in Chicago in 1942 resonates with today’s situation, when Ukraine is seeking Western lethal weapons and peacekeeping forces to fight Russia’s aggression.
“Gentlemen, don’t you think you’ve been hiding behind my back long enough?” the tiny woman asks the American audience in the movie.
The movie runs in Ukrainian in theaters in Ukraine since April 2. The expanded four-series version will be screened in Russian by Ukraina TV station on May 9, the Victory Day. The distrubutors plan to release a DVD with English translation.
Kyiv Post staff writer Anna Yakutenko can be reached at [email protected].
